Food fights, fancy clothes and fancy footwork

June 24, 4:44 PMDC Historic Travel ExaminerConnie Walsh Brown

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Lincoln's Inaugural Ball, 1865. Courtesty of the Smithsonian
American Art Museum.

It's strange to think that decked out guests at Lincoln's Inaugural Ball fought over food at midnight. Then they danced until 4 a.m. Although Abraham Lincoln and the first lady only stuck around until 1:30 before heading home to their White House, blocks away.

Somehow details like this on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum make yesterday's people seem real and less like history lessons.

During the bicentennial year of the great Emancipator's birth, an exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum displays glimpses into Lincoln's life and his world.

Some of the details are surprising. Like the food fight. Who would have guessed that elegantly dressed women and gentlemen dancing near the end of the Civil War would fight over food?

Images and ephemera from Abraham Lincoln’s Inaugural Ball, March 6, 1865, reveal Abraham Lincoln's last few weeks. Images, newspaper articles and artifacts detail the joyous ball. Historic events surrounding the ball place are also depicted “Honor of Your Company Is Requested: President Lincoln’s Inaugural Ball” exhibition.

Details provide a historical context of the quick journey from joy to tragedy: Lincoln's presidential campaign, his Inaugural Ball, his assassination at nearby Ford’s Theatre, the funeral parade and the hanging of conspirators.

On a lighter note, numbered footsteps demonstrate steps to the Waltz, a popular dance at Lincoln's ball. More than one visitor to the exhibition was trying out the steps.

A dance card lists popular dances of the day on the program that night. Few dances listed are assigned to "So You Think You Can Dance" contestants, so the names alone tell modern visitors little of what the dances that kept Lincoln up so late looked like.

The most interesting aspect of the exhibition is the historic site. 143 years ago, the building that we now call the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery was the site of the Patent Office, the building where Lincoln's ball was held.

Since the top floor of the Patent Office Building’s nearly completed north wing was spacious and empty, it made an excellent place for Lincoln's Inaugural Ball.

It is fitting that Lincoln chose the Patent Office building for his Inaugural Ball. Lincoln loved technology. During the Civil War, Lincoln was intimately involved with the development of new technology, whether it was new cannons, iron-clad ships, steam power, or telegraphic communication, wrote Charles Robertson, author of Temple of Invention: History of a National Landmark, the guest curator of the exhibition. Lower floors were filled with cases crammed with patent models, where even President Lincoln's own patent model for buoying vessels over shoals was on display, a museum spokesperson confirmed.

Approximately 4,000 people danced, chatted and ate at Lincoln's Inaugural Ball, that is if they could get food before it covered the floor in a slimy mess.

The exhibition of Lincoln's Inaugural Ball in its historic site is on display until January 18, 2010. Time enough to learn one or more steps to the Waltz, if you think you can dance.

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